student asking question

Sometimes people use the term "X-mas" instead of "Christmas." But what does this "X" mean?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Good question! This is actually Christian in origin. "X' in "X-mas" stands for "Christ" - in the Greek alphabet, X is the symbol for the letter 'chi'. Chi, or X, is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ. So this is why you'll see people refer to Christmas as X-mas, even if they are not familiar with the origins of the term itself!

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